Ankara, Turkey: Turkey is trying to expand its footprint in Afrika since last twenty years, initially Turkey had only one embassy in Lagos in 1962 but today the picture is changed, it now has 42 in different countries and many more in pipeline. Turkey is involved with these nations through not only trade but also through education, military cooperation, infrastructure and more.
The country has expanded its footprints from the north -Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia to the West African nations like Chad, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and then to Angola, South Africa, Congo and more.
The intensifying relations between the Ankara-Africa are largely shaped during the incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s tenure.
During Erdogan’s Prime minister ship from 2003 to 2013, he set in motion an African journey that has notched several new milestones in Turkey’s relationship with Africa.
He has been stepping in to bridge the gaps left behind by the West with the African nation, mostly former colonial powers. As Ankara helped Somalia withstand one of the worst humanitarian disasters. Turkey’s approach, more visible and transparent than other donors, was widely appreciated by Somalis.
Turkey offered help to the African nation in terms of training and equipment when militancy had gained ground.
Ankara in 2018 provided USD 5 million to the ‘G5 Sahel Force’, a regional coalition, which deployed troops to fight Islamist militants in the tri-junction area conjoining Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Though Turkey is still a new player in Africa, it has sowed enough seeds in the continent to become an influential power in near future.